Great post. And I totally agree. If you know your character, what you're doing in the scene and why, then even if you can't dredge up the exact line in the heat of the moment, you can get close enough to continue the scene (I'm a stage actor myself, so no retakes). Another good thing about that is if an actor you're working with goes off the rails, you're in a much better position to steer things back in the right direction than if you had just memorized the lines in a rote manner.

Scene 15 is a little over three pages of intense dialog, some important character beats, and a fair amount of technobabble. We were supposed to shoot it tomorrow, but it was moved to this afternoon, so my plan to learn it tonight was pushed up by almost 24 hours. People always want to know how a...

As with movies, I don't pay attention to the scores, but rather I read the reviews and adjust for biases I see on the author's part. For instance, the reviewer may say great things about the gameplay and then complain about the graphics -- I adjust my mental score higher in that case because I care more about the former. I also look for tell-tale words like "savepoints", which automatically makes me score the game lower (unless the reviewer is saying something like "savepoints are so frequent, you won't notice/mind them".

I came across this post at No High Scores yesterday. It's about how mega publishers are starting to limit access to the media in terms of review copies, overall access, as well as in potential ad money. There are a lot of great things about working in the games industry. You know what the bes...

I've been acting here in Austin for near 15 years, and I have to agree that the most important thing in an audition is to have fun. Whether you're going to get cast or not comes down to so many things, many of which are totally out of your control. If you're having fun, chances are you're doing your best work, and even if you don't get cast, at least you had fun...

Though I've written and performed hundreds of hours of sketch and improv comedy, worked on tons of the VH1 "I love the last five minutes" shows, and every episode of What I Learned From the Movies . . . , the belief that I am not funny and can't handle comedy persists in Hollywood. This means th...

I've been acting here in Austin for near 15 years, and I have to agree that the most important thing in an audition is to have fun. Whether you're going to get cast or not comes down to so many things, many of which are totally out of your control. If you're having fun, chances are you're doing your best work, and even if you don't get cast, at least you had fun...

Though I've written and performed hundreds of hours of sketch and improv comedy, worked on tons of the VH1 "I love the last five minutes" shows, and every episode of What I Learned From the Movies . . . , the belief that I am not funny and can't handle comedy persists in Hollywood. This means th...

I'm on a Philip K. Dick kick right now. Just finished A Scanner Darkly last week (boy was the movie a straight-up interpretation), and enjoyed it immensely. Currently reading The Man in the High Castle, and enjoying it, but not as much as Scanner. Next up: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Yeah, like many geeks of my generation I read it back when Blade Runner came out, but my only impression of it is that it was vastly different from the movie and that I liked it.

I don't do memes, because once I start, I doubt I'd be able to stop. That wouldn't end well for anyone, especially my cat who is bacon-averse. This morning, though, while I was Propelling, I stopped at SF Signal and saw Quick Meme: What are You Reading? Q: What book are you currently reading? I...

I'm on a Philip K. Dick kick right now. Just finished A Scanner Darkly last week (boy was the movie a straight-up interpretation), and enjoyed it immensely. Currently reading The Man in the High Castle, and enjoying it, but not as much as Scanner. Next up: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Yeah, like many geeks of my generation I read it back when Blade Runner came out, but my only impression of it is that it was vastly different from the movie and that I liked it.

I don't do memes, because once I start, I doubt I'd be able to stop. That wouldn't end well for anyone, especially my cat who is bacon-averse. This morning, though, while I was Propelling, I stopped at SF Signal and saw Quick Meme: What are You Reading? Q: What book are you currently reading? I...